Ireland: Irish Life now “Best in the world at plain English”

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Irish Life is proud to announce that they have been declared the overall winner of the Plain English Campaign's 30th Anniversary Award, for their outstanding commitment to clarity and honesty in their customer communications.

The Plain English Campaign is an independent body set up in the UK to promote transparency and jargon-free language. It is recognised around the world as the leading authority in this area.

Irish Life was picked out as the best organisation at living up to the principles of plain English during the 30 years since the Plain English Campaign started. Irish Life was selected ahead of 12,000 other organisations from 80 countries because of the clear and concise information it has consistently given to its customers.

What is the Plain English Campaign?The Plain English Campaign is an independent organisation that lobbies for crystal-clear language. It started in 1979, when the founder, Chrissie Maher, shredded hundreds of government forms in Parliament Square, London, to protest the difficulty of understanding them. The Crystal Mark, the organisation’s seal of approval for the clarity of a document, was launched in 1990.

How are documents judged?Once product literature is written it is sent to the Plain English Campaign for review. The Plain English Campaign sends it to a panel of adults to see if they understand what has been written, and after further examination, if it meets the standard, it is awarded a Crystal Mark.

“At Irish Life we are committed to using plain English in all our communications. We have invested in training over 470 of our customer service staff to use plain English, and we have a ‘plain English champion’ in each team”, explains Gerry Hassett, Chief Executive Irish Life Retail. “Our aim is to give our customers clear and concise information that they can understand the first time they read it. We’re not there yet, but we are working harder than ever to get there. Winning the Plain English Campaign’s award tells us we’re going in the right direction!”